


Prom is Better With Three

by justdk



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Multi, OT3, Prom, sarchengsey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 21:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10522665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdk/pseuds/justdk
Summary: OT3 at Prom! Blue asks Gansey and Henry to her school's prom and it ends up being better than any of them could have imagined.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the sake of this story please imagine that there was an extra week between the toga party and the rest of the events in The Raven King.

It was spring. The woods and fields were waking up, trees were budding, flowers were blooming, and the prom committee at Mountain View was in high gear preparing for this year’s extravaganza. Blue had been ignoring the ticket table that was set up in the cafeteria, the glittery posters that covered the walls and doors, the high-pitched gossip of who had asked who and who had been rejected. Prom had never been on her radar and with all her raven boy drama she simply did not have the patience or energy for it. _In less than a month Gansey would be dead_. Blue hardened her heart against the thought.

Blue had been studiously ignoring the rest of her classmates on that fateful day when both Henry _and_ Gansey had deigned to call on her at school, but there was no ignoring the scandal that she encountered when she returned to school the next day. She was accosted by demands and insinuations: who were those boys? was she sleeping with both of him? It was embarrassing and awful and Blue was reminded yet again of _why_ she had chosen her Raven Boys over her classmates.

What Blue did not expect was Gansey and Henry coming to see her at Nino’s during her shift that evening. She was feeling worn around the edges, still smarting from some of the particularly harsh things that had been said about her. At first she thought that Gansey and Henry had been able to sense her distress and had come to apologize for upsetting her social status quo. But no. They had come to ask her to prom.

“How do you even know about my prom?” Blue demanded as she took a break and slid into the booth next to Gansey. She grabbed Henry’s soda and took a drink, chewing on the end of the straw and glaring at Henry while she did so. Henry looked charmed by the gesture.

“There was a rather large sign next to where you were standing,” Gansey explained. “It was difficult to miss.”

“It was the glitter,” Henry chimed in. “If you want to get someone’s attention, _always_ go with glitter. Or rhinestones. Or anything sparkly, really.”

Blue rolled her eyes. “You don’t want to go to prom, trust me. It’s in the gym. There will be awful music and people humping on the dance floor and…” her voice trailed off and she stared moodily at her chipped nail polish.

“I don’t know why,” Gansey said, voice wistful, “but I’ve always thought going to prom might be nice. At least once, just to say I had done it. Of course, we don’t have prom at Aglionby.”

Henry flashed him an electric grin. “Can you imagine? I think it’d be a bit like a Shakespeare play and half the gents would dress as ladies and we’d all end up drunk and confused, passed out in a field somewhere.”

Blue couldn’t help but laugh. “I would actually like to attend that prom, just to see you in drag,” she said, giving Henry an affectionate tap on the nose. He blushed, eyes shining, perhaps remembering the toga party. “The theme for my school’s prom is Fairy Tales.”

Gansey immediately perked up. “That’s a classic prom theme!” he exclaimed. “I’ve heard about this in a documentary I watched.”

“Of course you did,” Blue sighed. But Gansey’s enthusiasm could not be dampened. He started gushing about prom traditions to Blue and Henry and Blue felt a poignant sadness that Gansey, for all his wealth and charisma, had missed out on so many of the rites of passage he was describing. While most teens cheered on their school’s football teams on Friday nights Gansey had been questing, researching, working so hard. He was on a literal deadline and barely had time to sleep, let alone participate in teenage revelry. The toga party at Henry’s was the only party that Gansey had attended in a year (unless you counted his DC political schmoozefest a party—and Blue did not).

This seemed unbearably sad to Blue. Yes, she and the boys didn’t need to go out and party to enjoy each other’s company; in fact they preferred to be on their own. And yet…Gansey wanted to go to prom. With her. With Henry. Was she really going to refuse him this? Blue could sense Gansey’s mortality like a kitchen timer steadily tick-tick-ticking down the moments until he became that lost shade on the Corpse Road. Blue shivered.

“…do you know that there is a scholarship for students who make their outfits out of duct tape? It’s incredible! Here, let me show you. Henry, you will not believe these dresses. Blue, you too. Look, look at this one! It’s Alice and the Mad Hatter.” Gansey passed his phone from Henry to Blue, the screen showing an image of mind-boggling couture made of duct tape. “Blue I bet you could do this!” Gansey enthused.

Blue looked at the picture. It _was_ good. Amazing, in fact. But. “Gansey, do you know how much duct tape costs? It’s about three dollars a roll, more if you want patterns. And these outfits take tons of rolls of tape, not to mention countless hours. It would be much cheaper to just buy a dress.”

“But the scholarship…” Gansey pleaded.

“Look, even if I thought this was a viable idea there is no way to have it done in time. Prom is next weekend!”

“So you’ll go? You’ll take me and Henry?” Both boys were beaming at her, looking so hopeful that she couldn’t let them down. After all, they were taking her to Venezuela. This was the least she could do.

Blue got out of the booth. She needed to do this standing up, formally. It was a gesture that she was sure both boys would appreciate. Blue fussed with her hair, straightened her apron, and then stood as straight and tall as her short frame would allow.

“Gansey. Henry. Would you do me the tremendous honor of being my dates to the Mountain View High prom?”

“YES!” Henry and Gansey shouted at once, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant. Blue ducked her head in embarrassment before trading grins with the two Aglionby boys. Prom. It was happening.

—–

The first order of business was deciding on what fairy tale the three of them should represent. But none of the traditional tales fit them. Blue refused most of them out of hand due to their presentation of powerless women being controlled by men, whether fathers or suitors.

“Women are either a virgin to be won, or a witch,” Blue complained.

“The tales are also nauseatingly heteronormative,” Henry said, wrinkling his nose in a way that made both Blue and Gansey give him adoring looks.

“They are highly problematic,” Gansey murmured, turning through the pages of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They had other reference materials scattered on the floor of Monmouth: tales from various countries, books of ballads and folk tales, art books with eerie and lovely paintings. They considered going as the Fairy Queen and her knights, but Blue disliked the classic portrayals of the Queen. “She’s either a tyrant or a temptress.”

Blue flopped down on her back and stared at the ceiling. They were running out of time.

“What if we make our own fairy tale?” she asked. “Blue Sargent and her Raven Boys.”

Henry smiled. “Well if we’re making a statement we might as well cast ourselves as the heroes of our own mythology.”

“I like it!” Gansey agreed. “We can be woodland creatures from Cabeswater.”

Blue heard a derisive snort from Ronan’s room and she guessed that Ronan and Adam were listening in. Her suspicions were confirmed when Ronan yelled out, “I sure as shit didn’t dream any of you assholes!”

“You wished you could dream up someone as awesome as me!” Blue retorted. Henry appreciatively called out “Burn!” and gave Blue a high five and Gansey smiled at her and murmured, “Too true.”

Blue had thought that once they had their theme in place the rest would take care of itself. Of course, with Gansey and Henry on board nothing about preparing for prom would be so simple. They insisted on going shopping, they argued over transportation, where they should eat dinner, should Gansey and Henry match, what was Blue wearing? Ronan was infinitely amused by all of it. He kept up a colorful, profanity laced commentary on all their preparations. Adam laughed at him and gave Blue sympathetic glances; he knew what she faced at Mountain View, he had come from the same place.

In the end Blue had forced Gansey and Henry to go thrift store shopping with her. Gansey and Henry had suits, of course, but Blue argued that suits were hardly in keeping with the fairy tale theme, though Gansey made a very convincing case for a modern fairy tale aesthetic. Blue ignored him and sent the boys to scour the store for the fantastical while she tackled the racks of dresses. After about an hour of endless trips to the fitting rooms and hilarious modeling sessions, they each had accumulated the clothes they would need for their outfits. Blue volunteered to modify and sew their costumes in exchange for Henry and Gansey treating her to the prom.

Later, back at 300 Fox Way, Blue recruited the other sartorially talented members of the household to help her craft three magnificent and unique costumes. Orla disapproved of the entire endeavor. She told Blue that she was only going to make things worse for herself.

“Those boys will leave and you’ll be stuck here, forever known as the girl who dated two boys at the same time. Or worse! That all three of y’all were dating each other.”

Blue scowled. “How is that a bad thing?”

“Is that a real question?” Orla scoffed. When Blue simply cocked her eyebrow in a menacing manner she had learned from Ronan Orla threw her hands in the air and stalked away dramatically.

“Don’t worry about Orla,” Maura said. She had been eavesdropping from the hall. “I think what you’re doing is rather inspiring.”

This from the woman who had been romantically involved with a man who was not strictly _human_ and who was now dating a retired hitman. Blue smiled at her mother.

“I live to inspire,” Blue said airily. Calla _hmphed_ and Persephone chuckled.

—-

Blue could have sworn that time was rushing by at an accelerated pace. Something dark was stirring in Henrietta and it was messing with Cabeswater, spreading a sickness. She felt like time was running out. Going to prom seemed ridiculous, an indulgence none of them could afford. And yet… _Gansey._ Blue wanted to give him this, a special night with her and Henry, even if it was simply dressing up and dancing in her school gym.

Henry and Gansey picked Blue up at six in the evening on Saturday. They were already wearing their costumes, which Ronan had cuttingly described as Renaissance Fair meets David Bowie. Blue took it as a compliment. She knew her own outfit was fabulous: dark green lace leggings, black ballet flats brushed with shimmering paint, a knee-length gown of distressed satin and tulle of varying shades of green. On her head was a flower crown, on her back a pair of iridescent wings. Persephone loaned Blue a necklace of silver and moonstones and opals. Orla had finally caved and consented to styling Blue’s hair into a tousled mess. The final touch for Blue and the boys was face paint: glimmering masks around their eyes and over their brows. Orla did the honors, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she leaned in far too close and applied brushstrokes of paint over their skin.

“Oh my stars, you all look amazing!” Maura leaned into Blue’s bedroom. Blue, Gansey, and Henry were crammed on her bed, Orla practically straddling Gansey as she finished applying a light layer of sparkly blue gloss to his lips. Gansey looked extremely uncomfortable and both Blue and Henry were trying their best not to shove Orla off of him.

“Picture time!” Maura sang out. They followed her downstairs and posed on the front porch. Maura took tons of pictures of them. Blue’s favorite pictures were of the three of them pinning flowers to each other. Henry had “appropriated” a trio of gardenia blossoms from Mrs. Woo’s garden. Blue pinned a flower to Henry’s jacket, leaning in to smell the sweet fragrance. When she looked up Henry was blushing.

“Are you done primping yet? We got a long night ahead of us and Parrish is getting hungry.”

Blue whipped around and saw Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish strolling up the drive. They were walking close together, shoulders nearly brushing, and Blue wondered where they had been and more importantly, “What are you doing here, Ronan?” she asked.

“Hello to you too, Sargent,” Ronan gave her the finger and Blue replied in kind, smirking. “Parrish and I will be your drivers. Since you vetoed the limo you’re stuck with the Pig and me as your chauffer.”

Blue turned to Gansey and he shrugged helplessly. “In the documentary I saw that it was customary to not drive yourself to prom,” he explained.

“Oh, for the love of…and you think it’s a better idea for _Ronan_ to drive us?”

Henry stepped in. “It will be okay, Blue. Lynch drove Gansey and I here and we’re still alive.”

Ronan snorted, tossing the keys up in the air and catching them. “Man, I have one accident, _one_ , and you all act like I’m a bad driver.”

Blue grumbled some more, mostly to annoy Ronan, but she got in the Pig, sliding to the middle of the backseat, Gansey on her left and Henry on her right. She grabbed their hands as Ronan started up the Pig and tore down the road. Henry passed his phone to Adam and soon the car was filled with music from his special prom playlist. Ronan sulked because all his music choices had been rejected.

Their next stop was dinner at the Italian restaurant in town. They sat in a booth, this time with Gansey sitting in the middle. Henry and Gansey shared an enormous serving of chicken parmesan and Blue got a salad of locally grown produce and ate her weight in garlic bread because “No kissing will be happening anyway.” Gansey and Henry, under no such restriction, reenacted the Lady and the Tramp pasta scene, their lips meeting in a brief kiss. Blue captured the moment on Henry’s phone. Ronan covered his eyes and pretended not to know them. Adam looked jealous. All five of them got different desserts and shared them around; Gansey seemed to take special delight in feeding Blue a spoonful of tiramisu. Ronan tried feeding Adam but Adam shot him down with “I’m not your damn raven, Ronan.”

Once the bill had been settled they headed to the school (this time with Henry in the middle seat). Blue tried to focus on the jokes and stories the boys were shouting over the music but she couldn’t shake her nerves. She was about to enter her high school with TWO Aglionby Boys. After years of not attending school events, and only a month shy of graduation, it felt revolutionary. There would be no going back to her status quo of weird daughter of a psychic generally not worth troubling with.

Ronan pulled up to the front of the school and Adam got out and pushed his seat forward and then helped them out of the back. Already they were drawing attention. Several of Blue’s classmates stopped and stared. Henry preened and wrapped an arm around Blue’s waist. Gansey climbed out of the car last, looking strange and gorgeous with his sparkly face paint. He took Blue’s hand and gave it a light squeeze for courage.

“We’ll be in the back parking lot,” Adam said as he got back in the car. “Have fun. Don’t fight anyone, Sargent.”

“I can’t promise anything,” Blue muttered.

The Pig roared off and there they were: standing at the front doors of Mountain View High. Blue gripped the tickets in one hand and gave each of her boys a fierce smile.

“Let’s do this.”

“Whoa! Breaking out the action movie dialogue!” Henry joked. “They don’t stand a chance against us.”

Gansey laughed easily and led the way to the entrance, pulling Blue and Henry along. The teacher manning the ticket table looked exceedingly surprised when Blue handed her three tickets but she didn’t say anything, though her gaze followed them down the hall. Gansey and Henry immediately began commenting on everything. Gansey went into full anthropologist mode and was comparing what he saw to things in the documentary he had seen. Henry compared it to the hundreds of hours of TV series he had watched with the Vancouver Crew. Blue laughed and corrected them, sharing insider information on public school life. She was so amused by the boys that it was easy to ignore the stares they drew as they entered the gymnasium.

The gym had been transformed into something else. It was dark, almost too dark, and had been decorated with fairy tale dioramas that glowed bright neon colors under the black lights positioned around the room. There was a table near the doors where couples could paint each other’s faces. Blue and Gansey and Henry joined the line while scoping out the scene. A DJ was spinning dance tracks, most of them fast paced and frantic, like what Ronan would listen to. Almost everyone had come in traditional fairy tale costumes; there was a bevy of princesses, from Sleeping Beauty to Snow White. There were queens, fairies, Red Riding Hoods, princes, knights, and even a few witches and villains. Most of the outfits looked like standard Halloween costumes. Blue knew that she and the boys stood out. They looked like they had stepped out of a modern fairy tale. People did continuous double takes, checking them out. Blue held onto Gansey and Henry, firmly staking her claim.

The boy at the face paint table looked gobsmacked by them. Blue grabbed a tray of paints and set about embellishing Henry and Gansey’s masks, then Henry painted her face, whispering in her ear that she looked too good to be true. Gansey led them onto the dance floor. Blue was mesmerized by the way the glowing paint set off his cheekbones, the way it made him seem otherworldly. Henry was smiling widely, bouncing up and down, his white, white teeth glowing beneath the black lights.

“Color me impressed, Blue,” Henry said, “I wasn’t expecting small town rural to bust out the rave vibe.” Blue nodded, dazed. This was _not_ what she had expected. The DJ brought the song down and transitioned into a remix of a top twenty hit. The students yelled their approval, hands up, and Blue couldn’t stop the grin from rising to her lips. She pulled Gansey and Henry close and they danced.

Blue wasn’t surprised that the boys were as good at dancing as they were at everything else, though she was pleasantly surprised by how well the three of them meshed. They moved in their own special rhythm, Blue’s hands gripping the lapels of Gansey’s jacket, Henry’s hands on her hips, Gansey’s hands over Henry’s. Then they were jumping around, holding hands and spinning, twirling, dipping. And it wasn’t like the boys were just focused on her, Gansey and Henry paid equal attention to each other and it made Blue’s heart feel full and happy, watching as Henry pulled Gansey to his chest and then spun him into Blue’s arms.

Blue didn’t know how long they danced. It felt timeless, effortless, _fun_. During a slow, mellow song she excused herself and went to get water. She left Henry and Gansey slow dancing, Henry leading. They were joking about something, laughing and talking easily. Blue joined the queue, people watching and bobbing her head to the music. One of the girls in line complimented her on her dress and then asked, loud enough for everyone in line to hear “Are those gay guys with you?” She pointed at Henry and Gansey.

Blue gave the girl a cool look. “They’re with me,” she replied. She didn’t elaborate on their orientations because it wasn’t anyone’s business, though she was ready to fight if the girl said anything offensive.

“Got it. They’re really cute.”

“Yeah.” Blue couldn’t detect any malice in the girl’s words so she moved ahead in line, got her water and returned to the boys.

“Y’all are popular,” she told them as she cut in.

“Oh?” Henry asked. He looked around as if amazed that they weren’t alone.

“Yep.” Gansey spun Blue to Henry. Henry lifted her a little and twirled her in a circle until they were both dizzy.

During the next slow song Henry went on a water break. Gansey held Blue and they drifted together, lazily moving from side to side.

“Thank you for this,” Gansey said, speaking the words into her ear. Blue shivered and tightened her grip on Gansey. “I know it’s silly but I love that I get to do this with you and Henry. I wish…”

He didn’t finish his statement but Blue knew. She knew that he wanted _more_ : a kiss, the certainty of tomorrow, a future.

“Can this be enough?” Blue asked, tears pricking in the corner of her eyes.

“Yes! Yes, of course.” Gansey carefully cradled Blue’s face in his hands and rested his forehead against hers. “Yes, this is perfect.”

Henry returned, a strange look on his face. “Gansey boy, Blue, there’s something I need to tell you.” He paused until he was sure he had their attention. “Noah is haunting the witch’s house.” He pointed to a cardboard cutout of the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel. The house was painted to look like it was made of candy and the entire confection was liberally dusted with glitter. Noah was stationed in front of the house, mesmerized. Every few seconds he would flicker out before solidifying again. Some of the students had noticed and were staring in horrified confusion.

“Noah…” Gansey gasped. He looked sick. Gansey pushed his way through the dancers, Blue and Henry following behind, making his way to Noah. Noah must have sensed them. He turned and Blue almost recoiled. His usually smudgy wound was bleeding, the damage terrible and grotesque beneath the black light.

“Gansey,” Noah lurched forward. “Did you see…the glitter…it’s so…nice.”

“I see it,” Gansey said. He grabbed Noah’s shoulder, lending him his energy until Noah was fully corporeal again. Gansey glanced at Blue and Henry. “We need to go.”

The four of them snuck out of the gym, furtively moving through the dark, empty hallways until they were in the parking lot. Ronan and Adam were lying on the hood of the Camaro, pointing out constellations and sharing a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Ronan must have heard them approaching because he sat up and then nudged Adam to get his attention.

“Noah, buddy, did you just crash the prom?” Ronan yelled across the lot.

Noah nodded his head, smiling jubilantly. Blue and Gansey exchanged a concerned look. Blue didn’t think that Noah had _intended_ to crash the prom but somehow he had ended up there.

“Man, you are so punk rock,” Ronan laughed.

Adam stood and stretched. “How are we going to fit?” he asked. The Camaro only had room for five and that was already a tight fit.

“I could sit on your lap,” Noah volunteered. Ronan shot Noah a nasty look but didn’t say anything.

Blue hated to suggest it because it was such a cliché but it was the only viable solution. “Noah, Gansey, and Henry will sit in the back and I can like, uh, drape myself across them.”

All five of the boys stared at her until Blue felt awkward.

“What? It’s the only way this is going to work!”

“It’s a good thing you’re so small,” Ronan finally said. “Pint sized Sargent to the rescue.”

“Oh, shut it,” Blue scowled. The boys clambered into the back, Noah apologizing for causing problems, the rest of them assuring him that it was Not a Problem. Finally Blue eased into the back, perching on Gansey’s thighs, her legs stretching out over Henry and Noah’s laps. Adam gingerly moved the passenger seat upright and climbed in.

Blue was surprised that the seating arrangement wasn’t uncomfortable. She leaned against Gansey’s chest and he wrapped an arm around her waist and Henry and Noah held onto her legs. They joked that they were her human seat belt. Ronan blasted his music. The windows were down and Blue had never felt so alive and so loved, surrounded by her fierce and lovely raven boys. The scent of gardenias and gasoline filled her senses and she knew that she would forever associate the smell with this night, these people, and the dark, star-filled sky over Henrietta. She thought prom would feel like a crescendo, an ending, but right now she could feel life opening up for them. It was wild and beautiful and magical. It was their own fairy tale and she would do everything possible to give them all a happily ever after.


End file.
